The Malt Cross Music Hall, St James Street, Nottingham
The Old Malt Cross was a prime example of a Victorian Music Hall, built in 1877 by a plumber named Charles Weldon.
An inn had existed at 14 St James Street long before the present buildings were erected. ‘The Roebuck’ was renamed ‘The Malt Cross’ after the Malt Cross which stood at the foot of St James Street. When the inn was rebuilt by Weldon, extra frontage was included and plans were approved on 6 April 1877, drawn by the architect Edwin Hill, for a public house and skating rink.
Weldon was a plumber, glazier, brassfounder and glass and lead merchant and the inn/music hall seems to have represented a speculative venture that was opened in time for the Goose Fair on 2 October 1877. It seems that Weldon also owned the Royal Alhambra Music Hall and the Alhambra Band were engaged to play the popular music of the day at the Malt Cross on its opening night.
Just before the outbreak of the First World War the Old Malt Cross lost its licence because of its reputation as a meeting place for criminals and prostitutes and was described as a place of "widespread villainy and lechery" and "a haunt for felons and whores". The building was sold in March 1914, being purchased by Chapman & Watson wholesale drapers who used the premises as a warehouse until the 1980s when the Malt Cross became a carpet store and then a public house for the second time. The venue lost its licence soon after and the premises was acquired by The Potters House Trust which used it as a café and counselling / support service. In 1996 the Trust applied for a lottery grant to renovate the premises which opened in January 1998, just over 120 years after it opened for the first time. The music was provided by the Bella Voce Singers. It is now a venue for live small-scale pop performances, classical renditions, opera, poetry reading and music hall. The restoration project was overseen by the newly established Malt Cross Trust.
The venue, now a Grade II listed building differed in construction to the plans as submitted in 1877 but retained many original features including the spectacular arched glazed roof (which is one of the oldest of its type in Britain) as well as gas lights, cast iron columns with capitals of plaster depicting dolphins and bunches of grapes and innovative cellar lights.
